Crazy Beautiful Letters: Learn the basics of brush lettering, happy mail, and envelope art with creative lettering projects YOU can do!

by Judith Graves

Learn the basics of brush lettering, the joys of happy mail and envelope art, as well as creative lettering projects YOU can do in this hands-on, project-filled guide to modern calligraphy.

This book can be used to guide individual progress, but also functions well as a family-friendly, let's-create-something-super-cool-tonight activity book. All projects are broken down step-by-step with accompanying photographs. I selected each project for its easy-to-do value and practical use potential, and offer creative variations. The goal is to introduce you to the concepts and then send you off on your creative path.

It's time to reconnect with others through our words, our art, and send our messages of support through the time-honoured skill of letter writing. So join me on this creative journey and let's make some crazy beautiful letters together!

122 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 4, 2019

About the author

Heya! I'm Judith Graves, an award-winning young adult fiction author, children's book author/illustrator, and screenwriter. I live in Albany, Prince Edward Island with my husband and our sassy fur babies. I write and illustrate stories with attitude.

Reviews

[Simone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an advance copy from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

What a beautifully composed book! Judith Graves did a great job combining all the most useful tips and techniques in this book. I have always wanted to learn more about calligraphy and this book is a great starter book!
The layout is wonderful, the instructions are easy to understand, and I loved that Judith Graves added examples of how to incorporate the lettering in projects in the back of the book. The images used in the book are interesting and eye-catching, the fonts and colors are easy on the eyes and don't get your brain all over the place when reading the book.. Adding pages with quotes ever so often, was a nice touch and the quotes were relevant to the book.
I would absolutely recommend this book to those venturing into this subject matter for the first time. The tracing pages make it easy to practice. My recommendation is to copy them and not trace in the book, but on the copied pages for more practice.

[Trina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crazy beautiful Letters is a quick, helpful book if you are interested in beginning lettering. I received it as an ARC from Net Galley. It has nice instructions, practice pages, and a bakers dozen of crafts, to get one started. There are a few short personal stories from the author, nothing that detracts from the purpose of the book. This is exactly the type of book one wants when beginning a new art. It will benefit me greatly as I begin the practice of being a pen pal.

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a digital ARC of this book and couldn't properly read it because of formatting issues. What I saw looked pretty helpful. Interestingly, when I looked it up on Amazon the "look inside" was weird with formatting issues too, which makes me wonder if it was improperly converted to Kindle. If so, you may not want to buy a Kindle version.

[Doreen Prentiss Gabriellini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crazy Beautiful Letters by Judith Graves is an awesome, inspirational and creative book. If you are looking for a beginning book introducing you to brush lettering this is it. While Judith Graves is typically a fictional writer, she stepped outside the box and wrote this non-fiction book. What I like about this primer is that it actually gives you step by step instructions from how to hold your brush pen to numbered steps on how to create an actual letter. The list of supplies from pens to pencils to paper are explained in depth. I feel that Ms. Graves has given this book much thought and wrote it as she would like to be taught. Well Done!